If everything had gone to plan, we’d have been watching Akira in cinemas last summer. However while Warner bought the rights in 2008 and put a remake of the manga/anime on the fast track, various problems – from ever-changing directors to difficulty finding actors for the lead roles – has meant that it’s only now that it’s getting the greenlight. Indeed, there have been a couple time where it appeared the whole thing had been cancelled, so it’s almost surprising Warner has given it the thumbs up.
It appears the reason it’s definitely going ahead is that plans for a $150 million movie featuring at least one hugely expensive a-list star have been scaled back to a $90 million film (but with room left open for more Akira is this one is a success) featuring up and comers. Variety reports that Warner wants to start shooting in late February/early March 2012, with Unknown and Orphan helmer Jaume Collet-Sera directing.
At the moment there are no actors attached, but TRON: Legacy star Garrett Hedlund is the front runner for the lead role of Kaneda.
Harry Potter writer Steve Kloves has been working on the screenplay, with the film moving the action from Tokyo to a futuristic Manhattan. Biker Kaneda tries to save his friend Tetsuo, who’s involved in a secret government project, which involves bringing out someone’s latent psychokinetic powers.
General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser
Better late than never, I suppose. 
Bad Teacher turned out to be one of the bigger comedy successes of the summer, grossing over $200 million worldwide on a budget of only $20 million. It seems director Jake Kasdan is hoping he can strike it lucky again by reteaming with Bad Teacher screenwriters Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg for a new untitled comedy at Sony Pictures.
Fancy seeing six minutes of The Dark Knight Rises this December, rather than having to wait until its July 20th, 2012 release? Well, while Warner isn’t saying anything, it appeared a large chunk of Batman 3 footage will be attached to IMAX prints of Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.
A few months ago Ron Howard decided that after The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons he was done with Professor Robert Langdon and wouldn’t direct The Lost Symbol, the adaptation of the third novel in Dan Brown’s book series. Now it appears Sony Pictures is eyeing Howard’s replacement and wants Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek, according to 
For several years, Capote director Bennett Miller has been working on the movie Foxcatcher, but he got rather sidelined making Moneyball. Now that movie is out of the way, he’s back on Foxcatcher and recently attached Steve Carell to the lead role. Now the LA Times reports that Channing Tatum may be joining him in the movie. No deal has been signed as yet, but Tatum is apparently in talks.
There’s little doubt that ever since the credit crunch, Hollywood has been looking at all sorts of different ways of funding movies. While product placement has been popular for a long time, it seems they’re going to try and take things a little further with a remake of The Cannonball Run, by attempting to get General Motors to actually put up an extensive financial stake in the film.
We’re presuming that by the time it reaches cinemas, it’ll have a slightly more zingy title than Zwart Water (Black Water – which is the name of the Dutch Thriller it’s based on), but 
Nicolas Cage is a man who marches to the beat of his own drummer, which has resulted in some great film and an awful lot of dreck. We’ll have to wait and see which end of that spectrum Black Butterfly ends up on, but 
A few weeks ago 
After Zombieland, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick became one of the most in-demand screenwriting teams in Hollywood, with the likes of GI Joe 2 and Deadpool handed to them. Now they’ve got another high concept idea to deal with, as